Latin, as always, thanks for sharing, but, iirc, this article was discussed at length when it was first published. It was the usual back and forth with folks picking sides, myself included, about how black or how not black Prince was. Still, it's a very interesting article.

"...The seemingly rose-colored idealism behind statements like Prince's regarding his multiracial band was and is often praised by critics and fans wanting to celebrate an iconic black artist who they feel "transcended race," but blackness is not something to transcend—white supremacy is something to overcome. And Prince repeatedly and consistently flew in the face of white supremacy. ..."

well said, by the author

Good article! Thank you for sharing Latin!

1725topp said:

Latin, as always, thanks for sharing, but, iirc, this article was discussed at length when it was first published. It was the usual back and forth with folks picking sides, myself included, about how black or how not black Prince was. Still, it's a very interesting article.

Yes, you are correct. I searched it and found it here http://prince.org/msg/7/429857.

1725topp said:

What a sad conversation to have

These topics about race always go downhill fast.

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"We're all just the same".........Controversy.

I have to agree - this a sad topic for Prince. I would hope that he embrassed all people. We all are product of our past, and our environment. He was speaking to all and that is why he is held special to many. He spoke of race, love, God, and our differences. I think we all listened, and that is why he was so special. He was in search of what it was all about for him, and the world.

But Prince wasn't biracial. He was multiracial like a lot of us are.

Prince was a black man...period...

RJOrion said:

Prince was a black man...period...

True, wasn't trying to start argument.

morningsong said:

RJOrion said:

Prince was a black man...period...

True, wasn't trying to start argument.

me neither...not with you...

jdcxc said:

“Race” is a construct. His two light skinned Black parents, like most African-Americans, had diverse historical backgrounds- that included European and African roots (Native American, Louisiana Creole folks as well). The use of an Italian-American actress and an African-American father in PR was to dumb down the complexities from my first paragraph for a mainstream audience. The bottom line is that Prince’s family has a diverse history.

No beef, but I don't think it was to dumb down anything, it was to be misleading. He liked to spread the idea that he was mixed. You can hear him say it with his own mouth on one of those sketchy interview CDs from back in the day. He used to say that shit in interviews because he liked that. To be honest, he probably chose Italian (over just saying white), because of the steroetypes of Italians being sex-crazed cat-callers with abnormally virility. He wanted to establish that mythology about himself. It's not that he thought mainstream America couldn't comprehend the idea that he and his family had complex heritages. That was likely not on his mind at all. If it was it was most certainly and literally the last thing on his mind.

RJOrion said:

Prince was a black man...period...

Why would you say that when you know it's not the whole story? This story is sparsing, who is "more" black the next person. Shameful.

jdcxc said:

“Race” is a construct. His two light skinned Black parents, like most African-Americans, had diverse historical backgrounds- that included European and African roots (Native American, Louisiana Creole folks as well). The use of an Italian-American actress and an African-American father in PR was to dumb down the complexities from my first paragraph for a mainstream audience. The bottom line is that Prince’s family has a diverse history.

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Exactly! Any light-skinned black person is of "mixed race". Prince was also Creole. That's why they call it "African-American", because you are African dessent, and being American means that you have ancestors from another country, whether it's eastern europe, asia, middle-east.......whatever. If you want to go back to the days of slavery in America -- don't forget a lot of white men impregnated black slave women; thus mixed-race. You are only truly African if that is where you were born. America is a melting pot; whether your family came from Isreal, Spain, Mexico, China, Africa.....we are ALL mixed race.

Rev said:

RJOrion said:

Prince was a black man...period...

Why would you say that when you know it's not the whole story? This story is sparsing, who is "more" black the next person. Shameful.

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I know that Prince would not be happy with us arguing, because he didn't look at people that way. Just look at the women he was married to (all mixed race), and all of his other intimate relationships (mixed race). He wasn't about bashing other people's ethnic backgrounds. Have we not learned anything from history?

Rev said:

RJOrion said:

Prince was a black man...period...

Why would you say that when you know it's not the whole story? This story is sparsing, who is "more" black the next person. Shameful.

i never said anyone is more black than the other...i said Prince was a black Man...this is a known fact...if you dispute that, you do so at risk of exposing your own lack of knowlegde on THIS topic...

Prince's Creole Roots......

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http://prince.org/msg/7/439890

jdcxc said:

As usual, these types of threads digress into various agendas. In the strict race lines that have been structured in America through our racist history (the one drop rule), Prince is definately a “Black Man.” That simplifies the complex ethnic, cultural and genetic histories of all African-Americans. Black people in this country understand this. Prince understood this.

Exactly. And that is why Prince self-identified as Black. More importantly, he was socialized within the African American experience. It is the wellspring from which his musical genius flowed. Hence, his lyrics in "Breakfast Can Wait," "You can't leave a Black man in this state."

Or, why he reportedly told Eryn Allen Kane, when she and a group of (too many) background singers sat on a couch that collapsed under their weight as they waited to take the stage in the Rally 4 Peace benefit concert in Baltimore to raise awareness of and protest the murder of Freddie Gray while in police custody, “As long as I’m black, I ain’t never going to forget that!”

Prince was Black.